The commission

As part of the port renovation plan, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry wanted to devise a cultural project. The commissioners underlined the deficit of communication towards the inhabitants of Boulogne-sur-Mer as well as at regional and national level regarding the development of the port and the perspectives offered by its renovation and new facilities. The idea was to create a link between the city and the port, and to discover and reappropriate the port.

The artwork

The project suggested by the artist was complex so it was decided to implement it in stages. First the itinerary in the port and the lighting with the wind farm, then the bridge and then the park on the sea edge. The path through the port was devised as an art work in which functional aspects were integrated - information zones, cycling paths, street furniture. The light was also to be taken into consideration so that the path could be seen at night. The pedestrian pathway on the quayside was designed to highlight the features of the port and develop tourism. The focal point of the path was a pedestrian bridge above the Loubet lock which would serve as a discovery point of the port and of the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. This bridge was to be run with innovative technology and able to wind round itself when the boats needed to come into the lock; with sufficient space on the quayside, it was to house a small café and a raised viewpoint where the passengers could stay, even when the bridge was moving. The path was to end in a sea-side park which, in collaboration with landscape designers, was to be composed of areas for children and certain mobile parts, moving with the tides.

The artist

With a career beginning at the end of the sixties, the New York artist Vito Acconci conceived his first works as minimalist actions in the landscape. From 1970 onwards, he used his body to experiment manipulations and transformations in space which were filmed and he is recognised as a fundamental artist in body and video art. From 1974 he stopped investing physically in his projects and for the last twenty years, Acconci has been designing projects for the public space. His complex installations integrate materials from urban life adjusted to the human body to created utopia furniture destined to penetrate the urban environment.